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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22384081">Closer</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yoshishisha/pseuds/Yoshishisha'>Yoshishisha</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Developing Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Post-Battle of Hogwarts, like a few weeks after</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-01-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 01:48:24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,206</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22384081</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yoshishisha/pseuds/Yoshishisha</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>An escape in the middle of nowhere and they can breathe at last</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hermione Granger/Luna Lovegood/Ginny Weasley</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Harry Potter Rare Pair Bingo: Round One!</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Closer</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Betaed by Heretherebedraugr</p><p>This fills square M017 of my bingo card which had the song Closer by Teagan and Sara as a prompt (a song y'all should absolutely listen to because it's great). Hope you enjoy this!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It had been Luna’s idea. Hermione still didn’t know why something in her had expected to feel surprised about that. She hadn’t known what Luna had in plan for her future, but it had been obvious that it involved adventure and freedom in a way her own plans didn’t.</p>
<p>“We’re going,” Luna had said, one day.</p>
<p>Hermione hadn’t planned to be with Luna and Ginny in that moment. The two other girls had gotten closer in the year Hermione was gone, and it was obvious that this get together was part of a new habit for them. For all that she’d never been quite that close with Luna (as she smothered the urge to bang her over the head with facts every time she opened her mouth), she’d have to be blind not to see it. There was something ever so slightly tentative in the way Ginny and Luna interacted now, and Hermione thought she could see the remnants of that fragile friendship they’d had before Hogwarts.</p>
<p>“Where?” Ginny asked, with a fond little smile Hermione was fast becoming familiar with. This smile was accompanied by a glance of complicity in her direction, and Hermione couldn’t pretend the little lurch in her chest was solely from joy at being included as part of the we.</p>
<p>“Nowhere, anywhere,” Luna said in that dreamy voice of hers that sounded more and more like music to Hermione’s ear.</p>
<p>“The quintessential road trip experience,” Hermione murmured, chin resting on her forearms.</p>
<p>The silence that followed made her raise her head, only to realise that both Ginny and Luna were looking at her in askance. “It’s a muggle thing,” she explained, pushing some curls out of her eyes as she straightened up. “Well mostly an American muggle thing,” she corrected. “A thing young people do when school is over. They just hop in a car and drive. No destination in mind; just the adventure.”</p>
<p>Her voice had become almost wistful by the end of her explanation, and Hermione realised that was a childhood dream she hadn’t quite abandoned after all. She’d never actually thought about doing it, of course, but the idea of being so independent, of going where she wanted with no fear of consequences, was appealing. There was a sort of recklessness to it Hermione had never let herself have.</p>
<p>She was pulled out of her musings when Ginny slapped her hands on the table as she stood up from her chair. “Let’s go then!”</p>
<p>Even Luna seemed surprised at that, for all that she seemed on board with whatever Ginny was about to suggest. It was in moments like these that Hermione felt like she was playing catch up, despite the fact that she knew neither Ginny nor Luna was doing it on purpose.</p>
<p>The confusion must have been obvious on her face, for Ginny clarified. “On this “road trip” of yours. We’ve got my dad’s car out there somewhere, and it’s always liked me better than those dolts I call brothers,” she said with a secretive smile. “Aside from Charlie maybe, but a lot of weird things like him, anyways-“</p>
<p>She grinned at them with a smile Hermione felt could light up a room and continued with renewed determination. “The three of us could go anywhere, where no one would follow us, and just enjoy ourselves for a while.”</p>
<p>Hermione had to admit it did feel tempting, especially since she felt the need to keep away the mounting despair about her parents’ fate. But they had a happy life, away from their daughter, and she couldn’t begrudge them that. She was the one who’d caused it after all, with no guarantee that she’d be able to get their memories back. To be fair, Hermione hadn’t expected to survive the war, not when it had only been her, Harry and Ron against the best Voldemort had to offer. But survive him they had, and the pain Hermione had hoped to spare her parents was now hers to suffer.</p>
<p>“See, that’s why we need to go,” Ginny said, pulling her out of her thoughts. When Hermione’s gaze focused again, she could see on her face an expression she imagined was similar to her own. Wistful and determined all at once. The last year at Hogwarts hadn’t been kind to them either after all.</p>
<p>“Then let’s find that creation of your father’s,” Luna acquiesced. “And then we’ll go.”</p>
<p>“To infinity and beyond,” Hermione grinned, feeling that childhood joy of hers come back.</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>Hermione took a deep breath of air and exhaled, imagining that she could see the air leaving her mouth. It was so different, to be laying on the roof of that car, compared to the time she’d spent camping with the boys. They were at the border of a forest and Hermione hadn’t expected it to be much different, though in retrospect the obvious lack of being hunted would by itself render this experience much preferable to her previous one. The setting wasn’t the only difference though, and Hermione knew she couldn’t lie to herself and pretend the company didn’t have a big part to play either.</p>
<p>She could feel the warmth of Ginny and Luna at her sides for all that they weren’t touching and there were layers of clothing between them. As she let the gentle thrum of Luna’s voice lull her into a relaxed state, she felt hyper-aware aware of the short distance between them. She felt the warmth of Ginny’s fingers near her hand, and Luna’s leg brushed hers as she spoke in a way that made Hermione wish she’d worn shorts despite the cooler temperature of the night.</p>
<p>“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Ginny said, with a particular lilt in her voice that made Luna’s cadence pause slightly.</p>
<p>As though she’d only been waiting for that, Ginny continued. “The moon that gave you her name,” she said, words so low Hermione almost felt as though they only reached her ear thanks to the soft breeze. She pulled her eyes away from Ginny’s face to glance at Luna. The blonde was also staring at the moon, and if Hermione felt the slightest bit poetic, she could say she saw it reflected in her friend’s eyes.</p>
<p>Hermione smiled. “It really is,” she said at last.</p>
<p>And that’s where they remained. For hours and hours, staring as the night became day, talking with hushed whispers as though afraid to disturb the stillness around them, secure in the knowledge that here they could relax, that they didn’t need to be anyone but themselves for each other.</p>
<p>All through it, Hermione didn’t move. She didn’t move to close the distance between the girls and her, didn’t move to touch the strip of skin that showed as Ginny’s shirt rode over her stomach, didn’t move to grasp Luna’s arm as it danced over her head. She couldn’t bear to make the first move, not in this, just as she had never dared to make the first move in friendship.</p>
<p>But at the end of the night, she was cradled in their touch nonetheless. Her head was pressed into Ginny’s shoulder while Luna was curled on her other side, head resting over Hermione’s clavicle and  a hand thrown over her waist.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>When I looked up the lyrics to the song, Teagan had written an explanation, and part of it particularly stuck with me.<br/>She said: "I never picked up a girl and drove out in the middle of nowhere, so I was trying to literally have people imagine making out in a field in a car or laying out in a beautiful house with doors and windows open with the wind blowing.<br/>I was trying to imagine a whole night happening like back to the time when you would sit and talk to somebody for like eight hours and never touch them but just thinking about it the whole time. I just wanted to create this intense craving for somebody with the night sky changing overhead with the passing of time."</p><p>That's the atmosphere I was trying to have in this fic :D</p></blockquote></div></div>
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